“I’m sorry the old Taylor can’t come to the phone right now,” says the new Taylor on “Look What You Made Me Do,” her freshly released single. “Why? Because she’s dead.”

Opening with piano, twinkling percussion and queasy strings that suggest the onset of a Disney-movie nightmare, the song was released late Thursday as the prelude to a new album, “Reputation,” to be released Nov. 10. It finds Swift breaking out a sinewy, sultry voice bent on vengeance. Who’s the target? Swift’s would-be oppressors might include everyone from old boyfriend Calvin Harris to longtime antagonist Kanye West. After all, Swift has never shied from using her songs as platforms for getting the last word on those-who-done-her-wrong (just ask John Mayer).

In many ways, “Look What You Made Me Do” sounds like a sequel to Swift’s 2014 single “Blank Space,” with its self-deprecating line about keeping count of her ex-lovers. On the new song, Swift sings, “I got a list of names and yours is in red underline.”

The sparse production nods at hip-hop more so than even the pop-rock of her previous album, “1989.” The song strongly evokes her New Zealand counterpart, Lorde, in the way the vocals play a rhythmic as much as melodic role. The lack of sugar-coating suits the bad-girl avenger Swift portrays. The way “oohhh” oozes from Swift’s lips just before she repeats the title line adds an uncharacteristically wicked kick.

The single’s release was preceded by a flurry of internet debates and controversies. Swift posted a series of snake videos on her various social-media outlets, which caused some fans and cultural pundits to speculate whether she was responding to last year’s tiff with West and Kim Kardashian over her less-than-flattering name-check in West’s song “Famous.” Earlier Friday, a website appeared with what turned out to be a fake countdown to the single’s release, only to be replaced by a Rick Astley video.

“Reputation” will be Swift’s sixth studio album. Its predecessor, “1989,” was the best-selling album of 2014 and a Grammy Awards winner for album of the year.